Lance Cole - Secrets of the Spitfire The Story of Beverley Shenstone, The Man Who Perfected the Elliptical Wing

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Dedication

To the memory of my grandfather, Thomas Robert Godden (RAF), flyer, member of West London Aero Club, Citroen DS owner, and pipe smoker. Not a day passes that he is not missed. See you up there old chap, get the kettle on Also, to my children, Emily and Jack, in the hope that they are taught the lessons of history and that they have a passion for the truth that, like all truth, awaits the great adventure of exploration, discovery and investigation.

And in memoriam to unsung heroes, notably the great genius, Air Chief Marshal Sir Wilfrid Freeman, the man who did so much to ensure victory in the air 1939 1945.

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by
PEN & SWORD AVIATION
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire
S70 2AS

Copyright Lance Cole 2012

9781781599969

The right of Lance Cole to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the Imprints of Pen & Sword Aviation,
Pen & Sword Family History, Pen & Sword Maritime, Pen & Sword Military,
Pen & Sword Discovery, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe True Crime,
Wharncliffe Transport, Pen & Sword Select, Pen & Sword Military Classics,
Leo Cooper, The Praetorian Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and Frontline Publishing

For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

This book has been many years in the making. Without the following people it would not have happened and I am indebted to them for access to private papers, diaries and photographs. Principal thanks go to all the Shenstone family, notably Blair Shenstone and his brothers Brian Shenstone, Derek Shenstone, and Saxon Shenstone, and to Beverleys grandson Taro Harvey Shenstone Tint, who travelled across continents with his Uncle Blair to secure lost documents unseen for decades, and to his mother Masae Shibusawa Tint and to her late husband, David Shenstone Tint. Also to Doris Shenstone who kindly supplied further photographs.

Thanks also go to: the late Peter Coles at Pen and Sword for having the vision to commission this book; Brian Riddle, Chief Librarian at the National Aerospace Library and RAeS stalwart for his patience and help; Dr Alfred Price for support and information; Sir Kenneth Warren FRAeS for doing me the honour of writing the Foreword; Peter Hearne FRAeS and his wife Georgina for their kind help and insight; Dr John Ackroyd PhD CEng FRAeS for his aerodynamics advice; Ting Baker, the books editor, for her skill and patience; staff at the: Royal Aeronautical Society, Solent Sky Museum, The Spitfire Society, The British Gliding Association and Peter Stratten; The Vintage Glider Club its President the late Chris Wills, Justin Wills, and Martin Simons and Bruce Stephenson; the late Rear-Admiral Nicholas Goodhart CB FRAeS for inspiration and wise counsel; the charity Fly2Help; former colleagues at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council; and Dr Klaus Heyn at the Deutsches Segelflugmuseum for his kind assistance.

A donation from the sales of this book will be made to the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund (RAFBF). I thank my former colleagues at the RAFBF, Martin Henshaw and Stuart Turnbull, for their past support.

Foreword

Beverley Shenstone would have got on well with Lance Cole. Of this I am sure because in this remarkable book Cole reveals not just an intriguing tale of a splendid Canadian polymath, but Coles skill as a forensic researcher has unearthed previously unknown gifts made to the advancement of aeronautics by Shenstone as he developed into one of the greatest aeronautical engineers of the twentieth century. Both author and subject emerge from these pages as two men in harmony, yet a generation apart; one dedicated to advancing knowledge and the other to securing the recording of that achievement. Cole also renders service to all aviation historians by proving that without Shenstones creativity the Spitfire would not have achieved its dominance in the Second World War.

In this book Lance Cole displays and deploys his diligent research in a most readable form, revealing the aggregation of personal contributions made by Shenstone to enhance the progress of aviation in peace and in war. My generation of British aeronautical engineers applauded Beverley Shenstone both as the first airline chief engineer to be awarded a seat on the Board of a British nationalized airline and for how he spoke up resolutely for British aviation to governments who regarded nationalized airlines as theirs to rule and so dictated the frontiers of British civil aircraft manufacture.

Claiming, boldly, that some personal reminiscences are the right of an author of a Foreword it is in an exciting, previously untold story of the Spitfire Lance Cole recounts that my own memory dwells. For three quarters of a century our eyes have feasted on Spitfires soaring across the sky, glorious blends of beauty and power. My first sight was a small, silver gleam reflecting the sun, far off on a runway, suddenly speeding up into the sky, its wings spread out in that classical, captivating ellipse.

Three years later I saw Spitfires soar skywards into battle over London, weaving white trails across the sky, so high no sound of battle came down. Adolf Galland, the German fighter ace, asked by Herman Goering what he needed to win the Battle of Britain replied caustically A squadron of Spitfires! And on the only occasion in war when Spitfires faced Spitfires, the Egyptian and Israeli pilots just circled each other, refusing to fire on Spitfires. Lance Cole will cause many readers, as he has me, to dwell on their own memories of a stunning aircraft to which Shenstone contributed new ideas based on his work with Lippisch in Germany, which melded so well with the design genius of Reginald Mitchell and developing from the successful Schneider Trophy partnerships with Rolls-Royce.

But I must not use my privilege here to tell more of the career Shenstone wove in combination with other great names who forged success in war and in peace: George Edwards, Wilfrid Freeman, Sidney Camm, and even with Winston Churchill. And that last name I must leave to tempt eager readers.

Lance Cole has produced a book of which he has a right to be proud because it is not just about one man, Beverley Shenstone, it is a major contribution to the records of the development of aviation.

I am honoured to have been asked to offer this Foreword and commend Lance Coles work to you.

Sir Kenneth Warren, FRAeS

Introduction

This is not a war story, but in one vital context, it is. Without the Spitfire the Second World War might have had a different outcome, but the Spitfires war story has been told and this is not another book about the aircrafts war. Instead it is, uniquely, a book about the how and the why of the Spitfires design, and the work of a man who played a major part in its shaping, yet whose name is hardly known. Utterly professional, modest, and known as the quiet Canadian, Beverley Shenstone had no interest in self-glory. Few know of his role in perfecting the Spitfires ellipse, or his further works: his story, wrapped around that of the Spitfires, is the essence of this tale.

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